27> ASIA

million people \\ resting from the reluctant soil crops barely
sufficient to maintain an existence ^hich passed amidst
damp and mud for one halt of the >ear and in a dry hot and
dust laden atmosphere tor the other is one of the most
miserable imaginable especiall} since the neighbourhood is

FIG 129 ESTL\RY \E\R HLE ANN \M
The provinces of Indo-Chma from north to south include Tong
King \nnam Cambodia and Cochin China This estuary bears
a name meaning Ruer of Perfume and is typical of most of the
China Coast
pecuharh liable to epidemic diseases affecting both men and
cattle (W A Graham)
In sharp contrast to this are the gentler conditions of the
south \\here with plenty to eat an equable climate and little
or no disease the lot of the natives is far happier
The three great nvers mark out roughly the three political
di\isions Burma with \\hich we shall not deal lies to the
west of the Saiuen and the mam Kwaa Range Thailand lies
between this boundary and the Rrver Mekong -with the
exception of the lower basin of that n\er which with all